The purpose of this is to keep people updated about what is going on around the site, answers questions, let you know what is going on with Juggle, etc.

This weekly update will be split up into several parts.

1. Updates, announcements, and any other information that needs to be put out.

2. Member appreciation. I am going to take the time to thank members for their hard work, and open up this section for others to nominate someone who has made an honorable mention as well. This is nothing official, there will be no stickies made, and it won't be a copycat of the HOF. This is just a casual appreciation of members who did something worthy of mention, etc.

3. Advertise quality debates. Many members have been complaining justly that the "need votes" thread has become cluttered with forfeits, which acts as a deterrent to wanting to vote more. I will advertise some of the more quality debates in need of votes in this section for voters to potentially use as a resource.

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***Current news***

The Debate.org Forum as usual, has been pretty active with threads, posts, and communication.

UPDATE SUGGESTION THREADS

Some of the main threads that have started popping up everywhere are update suggestion threads.

To help consolidate some of these threads, I invite members to put suggestions for update ideas in this thread so I can look at them a little easier. Outside of that, I have seen some pretty neat ideas being thrown around!

TOURNAMENTS

There are several tournaments going on right now. As far as I know, there are currently at least 4.

And Sargon's Tournament (though I haven't heard if this is still going on or not so I won't post the link).

All of these tournaments seem to be producing some really good debates, and it is encouraged that you look through and vote on them if you get a chance. I am sure all of the challengers would appreciate it as well!

VOTING ISSUES INFLUX

Lately there has been multiple threads concerning issues about voting, from controversies about the quality of votes, to straight vote bombs,and even the lack of voting.

There has been a lot of issues lately with this, which I hope we can all work at improving on, whether it be voting more debates, taking more time to read and analyze debates prior to voting, or even being too over-sensitive about losing a debate to an RFD you don't like. While I don't think the last part is the case in most of these issues, it has been an issue in the past. The way I like to look at it is, if there is an issue with something, what am I myself willing to do to help the cause? From there we can change our perspective on these types of things.

Hey everyone, lately I have been getting a lot of messages asking me to remove votes, offer job positions, etc. A lot of the older members know the deal with some of this stuff, but for some of the newer members I putting this out because there is a common mis-conception between the roles of the Debate.org president, and the moderator.

If any things that has to do with an issue or conflict with another member, airmax will be the one to contact if you need to discuss banning, vote removal, etc. I as a president, do not have the physical ability to remove votes or ban other members. I do however talk with airmax on most issues, so if you ever want to talk to me about an issue, I am more than willing to discuss another member's behavior, and I can send it up the chain of command as necessary. I am also more than willing to offer feedback and advice on such issues.

As a president, my primary role is to communicate with Juggle and coordinate with them to help prioritize the member's wants and needs through site projects and updates.

To keep you updated on what is going on, I have been communicating with Juggle over the last couple weeks and we are working on several different things to help the website out, all based on member feedback. I am currently in the stage of gathering information from the members on certain things like moderation of the home page content, and cleaning up the polls section. There are multiple projects that we are working on as far as physical updates as well, and are mainly working on prioritizing which ones get pushed through first, and their importance over the rest.

If you would like to be involved in the discussion on how to help the site out, your feedback is important! Just let me know you are interested, and I will message you some specifics that you can offer your own help and ideas with. I am currently talking about similar things with a group of members, but the floor is open to all advice.

***For all you desperate voters***

Here are some great quality debates that are in the voting period right now and can use your help with some enlightening feedback! These are all forfeit free.

To get this started, I will go ahead and choose someone, however if someone else has a member they think deserves an honorable mention, please let me know and I will mention them in next weeks Announcement. If I get no submissions, I will just continue to mention members I notice.

This week I would like to honor the member Bsh1.

If you know bsh1, you know he is a great guy with a cool personality. Beyond that, he is one of the most thoughtful and helpful members of the site. He is always offering his help and feedback to make the website a better places, and really cares about going above and beyond to make a difference. He is definitely becoming a familiar friendly face around debate.org, and we are happy to have him here!

One thing that impressed me with bsh1, was his fantastic voting efforts. We all know voting is and has been a problem on Debate.org for a long time. Bsh1 does not waste any time complaining, but rather rushes to help the situation. Also you can tell in his RFD's that he really loves to vote.

Giving an excellent round by round, point by point analysis, and offering great feedback to both debaters, Bsh1 spent a lot of his own personal time and invested it into helping others.

Not only is Bsh1 an excellent voter, but he is an impressive debater. If his win record doesn't speak for itself, check out this awesome debate: http://www.debate.org...

The topic is fun, and an amazing effort has been put it. I personally cannot wait to read and vote on this debate myself.

Keep up the good work Bsh1! I would like to thankyou from debate.org and it's community for the work you put into making this site a better place. Your hard work is appreciated!

***Questions? Feedback?***

If you have any questions about anything mentioned in this thread or anything else in general, feel free to ask me here. I am also always open to hearing feedback and suggestions as to how I am doing as a president, and what things you think I could work on improving. You can PM me if you would like it to be private, otherwise, I am open game to talk to you in this thread if you want.

SUGGESTIONS:1. Add a favorite setting to notify us when a debate we like enters the voting period.2. Print view on debates.3. More than 5 rounds possible (which would be very useful for smaller character limit debates, to get more back and forth).4. The option mid debate to extend the number of rounds (only if both sides consent).5. Changing the vote window to give each area points are awarded their own small text box (unlikely to happen, but I feel it would fix all problems of new members not realizing they have to explain the points they award).

Unofficial DDO Guide: http://goo.gl...
(It's probably the best help resource here, other than talking to people...)

SUGGESTIONS:1. Add a favorite setting to notify us when a debate we like enters the voting period.

This idea has been suggested, and offered to Juggle. The additional support is always good though.

2. Print view on debates.

Does the current browser not print debates correctly?

3. More than 5 rounds possible (which would be very useful for smaller character limit debates, to get more back and forth).

Funny, other members were suggesting less rounds for debates. The original "quick debates" ideas were supposed to do something like this I think as well.

4. The option mid debate to extend the number of rounds (only if both sides consent).

Why in the middle, rather than the beginning?

5. Changing the vote window to give each area points are awarded their own small text box (unlikely to happen, but I feel it would fix all problems of new members not realizing they have to explain the points they award).

I think I understand what you are suggesting. Like, to explain each category seperately as you are voting for it?

At 1/8/2014 4:05:37 PM, larztheloser wrote:I'd like to thank TUF for promising to do this. I hope that this actually is a regular thing. In fact I'm so happy, I nominate TUF to make himself member of the week next week.

Also, I hope I don't have to say what kind of things I'd like to see on the site... :D

Lol Edb8 has some great features!

Also, who's been asking you for job positions? 'Cause y'know, I might have a few things on my site...

I don't think counter vote bombs are really illegal, rather than discouraged. But I would be okay with CVB's if a vote isn't removed promptly, as I have seen debates get close to the end of the voting period with un-removed vote bombs.

I don't think counter vote bombs are really illegal, rather than discouraged. But I would be okay with CVB's if a vote isn't removed promptly, as I have seen debates get close to the end of the voting period with un-removed vote bombs.

votebombs can be removed well after a debate has entered the post-voting period though

I don't think counter vote bombs are really illegal, rather than discouraged. But I would be okay with CVB's if a vote isn't removed promptly, as I have seen debates get close to the end of the voting period with un-removed vote bombs.

votebombs can be removed well after a debate has entered the post-voting period though

Good to know.

"I don't know why gays want to marry, I have spent the last 25 years wishing I wasn't allowed to." -Sadolite

I don't think counter vote bombs are really illegal, rather than discouraged. But I would be okay with CVB's if a vote isn't removed promptly, as I have seen debates get close to the end of the voting period with un-removed vote bombs.

votebombs can be removed well after a debate has entered the post-voting period though

It's very ugly due to page formatting, navigation tools, etc. Whereas any article on say CNN.com, the print button brings up the content without everything else on the site.

4. The option mid debate to extend the number of rounds (only if both sides consent).

Why in the middle, rather than the beginning?

Because the flow of a debate isn't always predictable. Sometimes when having fun in a debate, more rounds of back and forth would be an amazing option. If proof is needed, just look at how often we continue in the comment section.

5. Changing the vote window to give each area points are awarded their own small text box (unlikely to happen, but I feel it would fix all problems of new members not realizing they have to explain the points they award).

I think I understand what you are suggesting. Like, to explain each category seperately as you are voting for it?

Exactly.Granted a main text box for summaries and such would still be useful (as it currently stands, being able to use line breaks, and have a larger vote character limit would be amazing).

Unofficial DDO Guide: http://goo.gl...
(It's probably the best help resource here, other than talking to people...)

Hey all you voters looking for high quality debates that are not forfeits, I have 4 tournament debates that currently could use some more votes. They are all great debates, I am sure you will love them.